A national education movement that says grassroots initiatives can improve high school outcomes is bringing a multimedia presentation to Colorado Springs on Friday.

XQ and Pop-Up Magazine will present “Super School Live” at 7:30 p.m. at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs’ Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N. Nevada Ave.

The lively event combines music, theater and visual art to show how education can look and feel different and lead to higher graduation rates and improved academic performance.

“The event is trying to bring a creative energy to folks to rethink high school,” said Marc Ecko, XQ Institute’s chief creative and strategy officer.

“We want to excite and delight, and we want people to believe transformation is possible in their community. You don’t necessarily have to wait for government,” Ecko said. “It takes concerned citizens, inventors and entrepreneurs to get engaged to showcase we could do better than having one of five students in Colorado drop out of high school.”

Colorado Springs is one of seven stops on the inaugural tour, which originates from institute headquarters in Oakland, Calif.

The nonpartisan organization, launched in 2015, has garnered support from people such as filmmaker Ava DuVernay, who said the event “brings the power of storytelling and theater together to ignite a spirit of social change.”

XQ works with high schools and groups to inject stories from the community, Ecko said. Colorado involvement includes Colorado Youth Congress, which trains youths to lead systems change; A+ Colorado, an education advocacy group; and the Colorado Education Initiative, which provides education tools, resources, best practices and programs for K-12.

The event is tailored to students, parents, teachers and community members interested in education, Ecko said.

“Something’s going wrong. Five in nine Colorado students graduate and go to college, one-quarter to a four-year college and more than half go to two-year colleges, and a tremendous amount need remedial courses,” Ecko said. “Our system has fallen behind, and we think it’s time for a new call to transform our systems and relieve ourselves from nostalgia.”

XQ looks at how the school year and day could be managed differently, some of the ideas put into practice at the 19 schools XQ operates, including Compass Academy in Denver.

Attendees will hear what’s being done around the nation, funny anecdotes, a tale of literacy and copyrighting when an eighth-grader became a food critic and how it helped and hurt him in high school.

“We frame the people who do this work as heroic, and we have a very nonjudgmental view to school governance,” Ecko said. “School reform could happen through charter schools and comprehensive high schools.

“The thing we want agreement on is: Are we delivering the best that we can in our communities for our kids?”

Tickets are $17 and available at tickets.uccspresents.org/1084?psn=1084, or call the box office at 255-3232.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and all ticket proceeds benefit local nonprofits.

Contact the writer: 719-476-1656.

XQ and Pop-Up Magazine’s Super School Live event is a multi-media extravaganza. Courtesy photo